American Views Abroad

Friday, December 09, 2005

CINDY SHEEHAN IN EUROPE - TO TESTIFY AT THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Cindy Sheehan, mother of US fallen soldier, will testify at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on March 14, 2006:

Witnesses from several European nations to speak about the situation of military war resisters.

FROM:
MILITARY PROJECT OF AMERICAN VOICES ABROAD (AVA)

AVA PRESS CONTACTS:
MICHAEL MCGEE (STRASBOURG)
EMAIL: MICHAEL.MCGEE.1@GMAIL.COM

ELSA RASSBACH (BERLIN)
EMAIL: GOAVA@TISCALI.DE

The Intergroup on Peace Initiatives at the European Parliament will sponsor a hearing at the EP in Strasbourg on March 14 2006, concerning the situation of military war resisters from the 'coalition of the willing' fighting in Iraq.

The two US witnesses will be Cindy Sheehan and a US Iraq war veteran. Four European witnesses are also being selected to testify.

In her first trip to Europe since the events in Crawford, Texas last August, Ms. Sheehan arrived in London on December 7, where she attended a party in her honor sponsored by the Mayor at City Hall. She is accompanied by many supporters from the US, including Ann Wright, a former US career officer and diplomat who resigned her post in 2003 in protest against the invasion of Iraq.

On December 8, Ms. Sheehan will speak in the Scottish Parliament together with Rose Gentle, a leader of the UK Military Families Speak Out and a mother whose son, Gordon, was killed in Iraq. Other bereaved family members will speak as well.

On December 10, Ms. Sheehan, Ms. Gentle, Ms. Wright and other key anti-war activists from the US, the UK, and many other countries, including Iraq, will participate in the International Peace Conference organized by Stop the War Coalition in London.

Then Ms. Sheehan will travel to Madrid, accompanied by Spanish-American family members of fallen US soldiers, Juan Torres and Beatriz Saldivar. They will meet with bereaved Spanish families, including the mother of Jose Couso, a cameraman who was killed in 2003 by US tank fire into a hotel for journalists in Baghdad.

Ms. Sheehan galvanized discussion about the war and continued occupation of Iraq last August, when she camped outside the Texas ranch of US President George W. Bush for several weeks, demanding that he come out and answer her question: 'for what noble cause' her son, Casey Sheehan, gave his life as a U.S. soldier in Iraq on April 4, 2004.

Ms. Sheehan began her vigil in a roadside ditch in Crawford, Texas (population 705) on August 6, 2005 with only a few supporters at her side. But by the end of August about 10,000 people had come through Crawford to support or oppose her, some for just a day, others camping out for weeks. On August 31, as President Bush headed back to Washington after his summer vacation, Ms. Sheehan and her supporters travelled in busses throughout the US to assist the victims of hurricane Katrina and to garner support for their anti-war campaign.

Supporters as well as opponents came to Crawford from among other families who have lost loved ones to the war in Iraq, including members of Gold Star Families for Peace (www.gsfp.org), co-founded by Ms. Sheehan and Bill Mitchell, a father whose son Bill
was also killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. Members of other organizations came to Crawford to support Ms. Sheehan, such as Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Not in Our Name, and Code Pink. They gathered again in Crawford over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Many US soldiers have gone to prison as a result of their opposition to US policy in Iraq. According to the Pentagon, as of December 2004, more than 5500 US soldiers had already by then gone AWOL (absent without leave) or deserted since the US invasion of Iraq. Most are thought to be living 'underground.' During the Vietnam War era, both Canada and Sweden offered asylum to US soldiers. Now no western country does.

American Voices Abroad's (AVA) Military Project proposed the EP hearing to the Intergroup and obtained the consent of Ms. Sheehan to testify. Founded in 2003, AVA is an international network of US citizens living in twenty cities in Europe and the Middle East (www.avaworld.org). AVA Military Project is assisting the Intergroup for Peace Initiatives regarding a further US witness for the hearing at the EP on March 14, and is seeking witnesses for related events in Strasbourg that week.

An international coalition of organizations, including the War Resisters' International, based in London, will join with AVA to support the EP hearing and plan events in Strasbourg March 10-16. The plans include an international networking conference in Strasbourg on March 13 of organizations supporting military resisters.

Elsa Rassbach, a member of AVA and a Berlin-based US filmmaker who has been videotaping Ms. Sheehan and her supporters since early August, says:

'Soldiers must not be forced to support the war and occupation in Iraq when their conscience dictates otherwise. There are still 67,000 US military personnel in twenty US military bases here in Germany. They are regularly sent to fight in Iraq, where they sometimes are involved in torture and other war crimes. The wounded are returned to a US hospital in Germany. Many other European nations are also supporting the US in the occupation. The Iraqi people will be voting on December 15, 2005. Now is the time for Europe to exercise moral leadership to end the occupation of Iraq, which only serves to escalate the violent bloodshed there.'

- posted by Gloria @ 12:51 PM

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